Salt Creek Greenway Trail

The Salt Creek Greenway Trail is a nearly 25 mile-long, regional pedestrian/bicycle trail that extends from Busse Forest in Elk Grove Village to the Brookfield Zoo in Brookfield. It serves as a key link in the development of a 210-mile integrated trail network in northeast Illinois that includes the Illinois Prairie Path and the Great Western Trail, among others.

First mentioned in Elmhurst Park District planning documents in 1964, the reality of a regional Salt Creek Greenway Trail first advanced at a series of meetings beginning in 1994. The Elmhurst Park District’s Board of Commissioners then approved an intergovernmental agreement to build the regional trail in April 1997. In total, elected officials and staff from nearly a dozen agencies saw the possibilities of a north-south regional trail that could serve walkers, joggers, bike riders and runners from northern DuPage County all the way to Cook County along one of the region’s truly underutilized resources – Salt Creek. This concept and its reconnection to nature, either on bikes or foot, were “green” before its time.